---- Chapter 45 Years passed. The island remained Liv's sanctuary, her permanent home. The trauma of that day, of Michael's betrayal and his ultimate sacrifice, lingered, a scar on her soul. Finn grew into a happy, thriving child, full of laughter and curiosity, the spitting image of his father. Sometimes, he would ask about the man in the faded photograph Liv kept in a silver frame on her desk - a photograph of Michael from their early, happier days. "Mommy, who is that man?" "That," Liv would say, her voice soft, "was your father, Finn." "Where is he?" "He made some very big mistakes, darling," Liv would explain, choosing her words carefully. "But in his very last moment, he did something incredibly brave. He saved us." She would tell him about the storm, about the danger, about the man who had dived into the raging sea to protect them. She wouldn't tell him about the lies, the betrayal, the other family. Not yet. Maybe never. Some truths were too heavy for a child to bear. Every year, on the anniversary of that terrible day, Liv would walk to the cliff by the old lighthouse. She would stand there, watching the waves crash against the ---- rocks, the wind whipping her hair. She would remember the pain, the anger, the despair. But she would also remember the man who, in the end, had chosen to save her, to save their son. She carried the scars, but she had built a new, authentic life. She had found a quiet peace by the ocean that had witnessed both her deepest pain and her ultimate survival. And in her heart, a complicated, reluctant gratitude for Michael Thorne, the man who had broken her, and then, in an act of improbable redemption, had given her back her life, and the life of their child. Her passion for photography had returned, focused now on the rugged beauty of the Maine coast, and the intimate, joyful moments of Finn's childhood. A quiet life, a resilient single mother, and a boy who would know his father, at least in story, as a hero. 2